The woman at the center of Diddy's inner circle may take the stand
For weeks, Sean "Diddy" Combs has watched from a courtroom table as witness after witness has taken the stand, unraveling a wide-ranging tale of alleged abuse and conspiracy.
The common thread uniting many of the witnesses? They used to work for Combs. Ex-assistants, stylists and artists for his label Bad Boy Records have come forward – some willingly and some not – and testified about a man whose status as a public icon allegedly enabled him to be a private monster.
On Thursday, June 5, a statement from prosecutors that they may have caught the big kahuna: Kristina "KK" Khorram, Combs' former chief of staff and right-hand woman. In an aside with the judge, lawyers for the government called Khorram "an agent and co-conspirator," marking the first time she has been referred to that way. The language implies Khorram has likely reached an agreement with the prosecution and will testify.
Should she take the stand, she would likely be the closest person inside Combs' alleged criminal enterprise to do so. The government has accused the music mogul of leading a Promethean lifestyle powered by wealth and fame and propelled relentlessly forward by a combination of intimidation, manipulation, violence and even rape.
To accomplish that, Combs enlisted an entourage of paid support staff and enablers who lived a life most mortals could only dream of – lavish, nonstop and, like Combs himself, at the white-hot center of fame, money and power atop the entertainment world, prosecutors say. And at the center of it was Khorram.
In March, two months before Combs' trial began, she denied any involvement in the case or the flurry of civil lawsuits aimed at her "former boss," calling any allegations "untrue."
"For months, horrific accusations have been made about me in various lawsuits regarding my former boss," Khorram's statement read. "These false allegations of my involvement are causing irreparable and incalculable damage to my reputation and the emotional well-being of myself and my family. I have never condoned or aided and abetted the sexual assault of anyone. Nor have I ever drugged anyone.
"The idea that I could be accused of playing a role in – or even being a bystander to – the rape of anyone is beyond upsetting, disturbing, and unthinkable," the statement continued. "That is not who I am and my heart goes out to all victims of sexual assault."
If Khorram testifies, she will join a growing cadre of ex-employees who allegedly helped Combs run his empire, and now may be the cause of its undoing.
Some legal experts say their testimony, and that of more insiders to come, will bolster prosecutors' allegations that Combs oversaw a movable party operation that crossed the line into becoming a global criminal enterprise designed to "fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct."
"It seems like each and every day, the testimony gets worse and worse for Sean Combs," said David Ring, a civil trial lawyer specializing in sexual assault cases who represented one of Harvey Weinstein's victims in a civil case, in a previous interview with Paste BN. "And I think we're going to see more employees come forward who have to admit on the stand that they enabled these criminal actions because they felt like they were pressured into it."
Contributing: Josh Meyer, Jay Stahl